


Missing Pieces

by Laurea



Category: Derkholm Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 10:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17020929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurea/pseuds/Laurea
Summary: Blade and Kit investigate a series of missing objects, and end up finding something even more important.





	Missing Pieces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harborshore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harborshore/gifts).



“You made us travel all the way out to your mess of a workshop because you lost some art supplies?”

Blade sighed as Kit glared at Callette, every feather bristling with the special outrage that only a close sister could provoke. Long experience told him that the spat had to be stopped early if he wanted to avoid hours of shouting. “I’m guessing you need more than a simple locating spell, from how urgent your letter was.”

Callette’s tail twitched with annoyance, but the argument hadn’t yet consumed enough of her attention to make her ignore his question. She turned to Blade, pointedly addressing her answer to him alone. “Of course it’s not just a matter of _losing_ my supplies. When I said that an entire bolt of fabric disappeared, that’s what I meant – it vanished from the workbench while I was looking right at it!”

Blade’s eyebrows shot up at that pronouncement. He certainly didn’t doubt Callette’s word – but after her brilliant success as an artist, the wizards of the family had combined forces to put magical wards around her workshop. Any deliberate attempt at theft should have at least triggered a warning to all of them, even if the wards had failed to block it entirely.

“It just _disappeared_?” Kit asked, all his irritation falling to the side as he considered the problem. “Could it have been turned invisible?”

“I thought of that first thing – but it wasn’t there when I checked,” Callette told them. “But _this_ was.” She pointed to a small potted plant perched on the table beside her.

Blade frowned, reaching out to pick up the plant. It seemed ordinary enough – but when he touched it, the tingle of a spell sparked across his fingers. “You’re right, this does have some kind of magic on it.”

“I _know_ that already!” Callette snapped. “What I want you to do is figure out _what_ magic it is and how to get my fabric back!”

Blade glanced at Kit, and seeing his brother’s reluctant shrug, he nodded. “We’ll see what we can do.”

 

* * *

 

Neither of them had expected the request to take long, since the spell traces left on the plant were still strong enough to track back to its origins. Blade expected to translocate to wherever the plant had come from, exchange it for Callette’s fabric, and get the whole thing wrapped up before lunchtime.

It only took a few minutes looking around the tavern where he’d landed to realize that it wouldn’t be so simple. Not only did none of the staff there know a thing about Callette’s fabric, they all agreed that they’d never seen the plant before in their lives. However, they did have quite a lot to say about a barrel of fine ale that had gone missing, leaving a painted landscape behind.

And that wasn’t the only instance. Each time Blade and Kit tracked a misplaced item back to its supposed origins, all they found was another set of displaced objects. Not all the disappearances had happened at the same time that Callette’s fabric had gone missing, either – according to the people they questioned, the spell had been repeating itself off and on ever since it had started. Blade tried not to grimace at the large cache of items he ended up having to translocate along with him, but it was starting to seem as though the collection of objects would never end.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Kit said in disgust, after they found themselves several hours into their second day of tracking spells. “All we’re doing is traveling all over the place and collecting a lot of junk.”

“It isn’t junk,” Blade pointed out, though he didn’t feel any better about it than Kit did. “Some of these things look pretty valuable. This necklace definitely has a real emerald in the pendant, and I know that’s a high Empire styled vase.”

“Oh? Pretty sure when it comes to the Empire, aren’t you?” Kit jabbed, a teasing light in his eyes. “So you’ve been studying up on their styles these last few years?”

Blade tried to ignore the heat rising in his face at Kit’s not-so-veiled references to Princess Claudia. “It’s a very distinctive art style,” he said, staring intently at the vase so he could avoid looking at Kit. And now that he took a closer look at it… “Actually, I think I might even have seen this vase before sometime when we were in the capitol.”

“Really?” Kit leaned forward to peer down at the vase in question. “Well, if you’re sure – going to ask someone there if it’s gone missing might get us further than following another disappearance.”

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, wandering around the capitol city of the Empire and asking passersby about a mysterious vase of unknown provenance was a good way to get the close attention of the city guards. The reforms Titus and Isodel had enacted in the three years since their marriage had left their country with an alarmingly competent guard force, and the group that collared Blade in the middle of the market did not appear to be at all impressed with his explanation of searching for the vase’s rightful owners.

The situation looked as though it might get rather more unpleasant than Blade would prefer when a calm voice cut through the dispute. “Thank you, Captain. My brother and I truly appreciate your diligence. I will take over the matter from here, if you don’t mind.”

Blade froze at the sound of a voice he would always recognize – a voice belonging to the one young woman he did not want to encounter while in trouble with the imperial guards. As the men around him fell hurriedly to one knee, he turned around to find himself facing Princess Claudia – and in spite of everything his heart lurched when she met his eyes.

No longer the fragile girlish student he’d first encountered three years ago, Claudia’s growing mastery of magic had brought with it a quiet self-confidence and air of innate authority. Though she didn’t seek to intimidate the guards who surrounded Blade and Kit, there was also no trace of doubt in her expression that her wishes would be obeyed. She took sent the guards on their way with a few more quiet words, leading Blade and Kit from the crowded part of the marketplace to a more sheltered path.

Once they were out of earshot, Claudia’s quiet authority fell away as her eyes lit up with laughter. “Well, Blade, I’m sure Elda will be delighted when my next letter relates how her brothers were caught stealing imperial treasures!”

Blade had to laugh at the good-natured threat, even as he winced at the prospect of his family’s teasing over the misunderstanding. “We didn’t steal anything – we really were just trying to sort out what happened. Items have been vanishing and reappearing in other places, and we were hoping to track down that vase’s origins.”

“You said it was an imperial treasure?” Kit asked, tilting his head at her. “Does that mean you recognize it?”

“I should hope so, considering that I see it every time I have to sit with Titus in the audience hall,” Claudia said. “When we found it missing this morning, no one could think how a thief made it so far into the palace.”

Kit nodded. “Whoever’s doing this is getting past all kinds of anti-theft precautions. So do you know when it happened?”

“Either late last night or early this morning, according to the guards who were patrolling the palace,” Claudia told them. “One guard swears all was in place as usual, but the man patrolling an hour later found a basket of apples instead of the vase.”

“Which fits the pattern exactly,” Kit said. “One item vanishes and another appears.”

“A pattern? You think all the instances are related spells?” Interest sparked in Claudia’s eyes, bright enough that Blade’s breath caught in his throat.

Only someone who knew Kit well would notice his amusement as he glanced at Blade. “That’s what we think, but we haven’t gotten any further than tracking one exchange at a time so far.”

“Then you’d better come to the audience hall and look for any clues,” Claudia decided. She gave them another smile. “I’ll take you there, since we can’t very well have you stopped by guards every few minutes into your investigation.”

Kit said later that it had taken them nearly half an hour to get to the palace, but Blade would have sworn they spent no more than a few minutes with Claudia. He’d spent so little time with her during her three years at the university, knowing that she needed the space to grow into herself without an older man’s influence – but it had hurt to keep himself apart from her. And now that he was here, walking next to this brilliant woman who’d graduated with the highest honors the university offered, he found himself even more overwhelmed than when they’d first met.

He could have talked with her forever, even this mundane discussion of their investigation so far. Just hearing her thoughts and trading observations with her sent his heart soaring, and Blade wished he could forget everything else but walking with her.

But of course that wasn’t possible. Aside from the fact that he and Kit had come here on an investigation that grew more concerning the more they learned about it, there was also the key point that he hadn’t the faintest idea whether Claudia felt equally eager to speak with him. There was every possibility that she was only speaking with him now out of intellectual curiosity, or even mere courtesy to her friend’s brother – and the thought shot a pang of desolation through his heart.

But he didn’t have time to think about that now – not when he and Kit had taken on a task. They’d told Callette they would see her request through – and the more they looked into it, the more reason they’d found to be worried. Blade forced himself to put aside his thoughts and feelings about the woman beside him so that he could focus on the task at hand. He would never forgive himself if he let his attention to Claudia distract him from important work – and he doubted such irresponsible behavior would impress her much, either.

Just as Claudia had promised, no one objected to the princess and her guests entering the audience hall. It appeared to have been blocked off from general use, but Claudia led them past the guards without hesitation.

And when they entered, Blade could see why carrying the vase around the market had caused so much trouble. Judging by the cordoned-off area, the palace caretakers had kept it displayed in a place of honor, where anyone coming to petition the Emperor would have had a clear view of it. The plain basket of apples perched on the ornate pedestal didn’t fill the artistic void in the slightest.

“At first we wondered if it was some kind of calling card,” Claudia said, as the brothers moved cautiously forward to examine the basket. “But none of us could imagine a reason for a thief to leave these behind, even if they were inclined to announce themselves.”

“And the Thieves’ Guild usually frowns on theatrics like that, anyway,” Blade added, frowning. “They don’t care much for giving the victims unnecessary clues about a theft.”

“But there shouldn’t have been thefts at all,” Kit said, peering around the room as he took in the protective spells lining the hall. “I can see at least three different kinds of active wards that would stop any action done with intent to steal!”

Blade nodded in understanding – that had been the problem all along. “Would leaving a different object behind get around that?” He squinted up at the spells Kit was studying, and his face fell. “Ah – I suppose not. It looks like the wards should still have gone into effect as long as the vase was removed on purpose.”

Claudia frowned. “On purpose…?” Her lovely eyes blinked once – and then she gasped. “Oh! I see – it can’t have been on purpose!”

Blade and Kit both looked at her in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?” Kit demanded.

“It wasn’t _on purpose_!” Claudia laughed. “I should have realized right away – after all my experience with transportation going wrong, you’d think I’d recognize it now!”

“You mean you think it was an accident?” Blade looked down at the collection of objects he and Kit had accumulated. “All this was a spell gone wrong?”

“Well, that would have gotten around the wards without triggering them,” Kit conceded, thinking over the possibility. “And it makes more sense than if someone wasted the magic to throw a bunch of junk across the world deliberately.”

“No, that wouldn’t fit at all,” Claudia agreed, clasping her hands as she thought through her idea a little more. “In fact – with the way you’ve described these spells, one object moving after another – I don’t think it was meant to be a mass travel spell at all. It looks to me like these are all chain reactions spreading out from a single point of origin. So if we follow them, we should reach the first spell!”

Kit shook his head. “We’ve been tracing back along the chains for the last day, and we haven’t reached anything.”

Claudia tilted her head. “You’ve been following the items _back_ , haven’t you? Looking to find where each one was before it traveled?”

Blade and Kit nodded.

“If it’s a chain reaction, then you’ve been going the wrong direction!” Claudia explained, the joy of solving a difficult puzzle bright in her eyes. “The origin isn’t what was pushing the objects out – it’s in the direction they’re traveling towards.”

As she explained, Blade felt like he could _see_ the solution – item after item hurtling closer to a single goal. “No wonder we weren’t getting anywhere.”

Kit scowled as his mind jumped feverishly to work on this new task. “Then if we’re looking ahead – we’ll need to add a predictive element to the trace, as well as the location.”

Blade could see where his brother was going with this. “So we’ll need to use the traces of magic on the objects we have to reach forward for the other items affected by the same spell –”

“– and use the force from the end of the chain to determine the forward distance!” Claudia finished, a smile of enthusiasm lighting her face. “I’ve tried travel traces before back at the university – nothing on this scale, of course, but the principles should be the same.”

“Then you can take over that part,” Kit decreed, beginning to plan out the spell. “The three of us together should have enough power to pull it off.”

 

* * *

 

Blade and Kit had learned long ago to cast spells together – but to both their surprise, Claudia had no trouble weaving her power in with theirs. They braced their magic against the string of objects linked together by invisible powers, while Claudia’s magic whirled between them, using their steady structure to build further than any of them could have gone alone.

And their power stretched far, so far, through object after object, plates and wheelbarrows, stuffed bears and cloaks, on and on and on in either direction – until it finally went far enough.

Blade blinked down at the map laid on the floor between the three of them, watching as a small starburst of light twinkled above a spot on the outermost edges of the Empire. He knew beyond any doubt that the spell they’d cast together had worked perfectly – and that meant that the light was showing them the original point of the spell.

“It isn’t too far,” Kit said thoughtfully, peering at the area around them. “Maybe an hour’s flight, if that.”

“Or rather less, if we all do the translocation together.”

Kit and Blade looked back at Claudia with surprise. She raised an eyebrow at them. “If you’re looking into the spell that got around my brother’s protective wards, I’m not about to be left behind.”

And with the three of them working together, it would be less effort to translocate together than to travel separately. The simpler spell hardly required any preparation, and Claudia’s power merged with Blade’s and Kit’s as if they’d worked together a thousand times before. They reached for the place they’d just found using the tracing spell –

And arrived in an avalanche of scattering objects. Blade yelped in undignified shock as several pairs of shoes rained down on his shoulders, one of the heels connecting hard enough to bruise. He spun towards Claudia, fear for her safety jolting through him – but she seemed to have dodged the worst of it, loose hay drifting around her and settling in her hair.

An annoyed _hrumph_ drew his attention to Kit, and Blade had to bite back a smile at the sight of a ragged stuffed bear draped over Kit’s head. Kit tossed his head, trying to dislodge it, and Blade hurried forward to untangle it before the toy was unintentionally shredded by Kit’s sharp beak.

“Oh – goodness, what happened here?” The door of the house they’d landed in front of opened, and a middle-aged woman hurried outside with alarm written across her kind, round face. “Was there some kind of – of accident?” She looked around the objects scattered through what had previously been a tidy, well-kept garden, apparently in some doubt about what might have caused it.

“Sorry to intrude on you, ma’am,” Blade said quickly, giving the woman his most pleasant smile in the hopes of quelling any serious fear. “I’m Blade, and this is Kit and Claudia. We’re looking into some magic that’s been making objects disappear – but we didn’t expect to bring all the missing objects with us!”

“Oh… I see,” she said, though her tone said that she didn’t quite. Her eyes darted from Blade’s clearly non-Empire clothing to Claudia’s very well-made gown to Kit’s enormous size, and she had to take a steadying breath before addressing them again. “Well… I’m Tullia Decima, my lords, my lady.  I’m honored to meet you.”

She didn’t seem to be a mage of any kind, from what Blade could see. He glanced at Kit and Claudia, but subtle shakes of their heads indicated that they hadn’t noticed anything either. Had the trace not worked correctly after all?

“We had some indication that someone in the area might have been affected by this spell,” Blade said, making sure not to sound as though he were assigning any blame. “Do you know of anyone who –”

“ _Berr_!”

A child’s thin wail drifted out from the house behind the woman, and a tiny child came wobbling outside on unsteady feet. He couldn’t have been walking long, but determination was written all across his tiny face as he made his way towards the group.

“Julius!” All thoughts of the visitors clearly fled from Tullia’s mind as she ran to scoop the toddler into her arms. “You were in bed for your nap, darling – how in the world did you get out here?”

The boy’s attention was too focused elsewhere to heed his mother. Craning around her, the child stretched two chubby hands toward Blade. “ _Berr_!”

Blade blinked, then looked down at the ragged stuffed animal he’d rescued from Kit. He held it up so the boy could see it more clearly, with its fraying brown fur and the faded red bow around its neck. “Does this belong to you?”

Tullia gasped. “Goodness – where in the world did you find that? We all thought it lost for good when we couldn’t find it after visiting my parents!”

With that confirmation, Blade held the bear out toward Julius. But before he could get it in arm’s reach, it vanished from his hands – and popped back into existence held tight in the little boy’s arms. “Berr!” He clung to it fiercely, pressing his cheek against the bear’s head.

“Oh… oh my.” Tullia blinked down at her son, who was now the picture of contentment, and then back at the group who’d descended upon her. “Are – are you all mages, then?”

“We are,” Blade agreed calmly, since there wasn’t much point in hiding it. “But that wasn’t any of our spells.”

“You might need to start thinking about how to train a young wizard of your own,” Claudia said, smiling kindly at the woman. “I’m afraid your son has been exercising his power rather early.”

Due to his status as the least threatening of the trio, at least in comparison to a griffon and an imperial princess, Blade found himself tasked with explaining the happenings to the confused mother. Dealing with worried parents was a little out of his usual depths, but he supposed it wasn’t much different from talking to any of his sisters about their broods.

After arming Tullia with the contact information for the university, where he’d assured her she could also find help in locating someone to train her son in the basics to prevent further difficulties, Blade breathed a sigh of relief to have the task behind him. He’d take untangling spells over handling concerned parents any day.

“Then all that’s left is to take the rest of this stuff back where it belongs,” Kit said, gesturing at the piles of items scattered across the yard. “Might as well start by handing over that vase, since we’ve already tracked down the owners.”

A wave of disappointment washed over Blade at the thought of returning Claudia to the capitol. He looked over at her. “I – well, I suppose so. But –” He took a deep breath, summoning up his courage. “But – Princess Claudia – would you mind if I came back to visit you when we’re done?”

Claudia looked at him for a long moment, and Blade felt a stab of fear about what she might be seeing. After far too many seconds had ticked by, she smiled. “No.”

A tight fist squeezed around Blade’s heart. “Oh… oh, I see.”

“No, you may not visit me in the capitol of the Empire,” Claudia continued, eyes fixed at him, “because I have no intention of being there. I promised Titus that I would visit after graduating, but I’ve had more than enough of the country where I grew up. I’m ready to see different places – and different people.”

Her eyes sparkled at him, bright and brilliant, and Blade felt as though they’d lit an equally bright light within his chest. “Then – maybe you could come with us? We have a lot of items to return, after all, and they came from all across the world. You’d get to see a lot of different places just doing that.”

“What a good idea!” Claudia beamed at him, and Blade could have sworn he was floating as high as any of his winged siblings. “I’d love to join you!”


End file.
